Casino owners are always interested in enhancing the profitability of their casino games. More particularly, new and improved casino games allowing for faster-paced games, an increase in the betting amount per game, and a raise in the player's interest in the game, present a real appeal to casino managers.
Tournaments are very popular and attract many spectators a s players to Casinos. They are a good marketing tool for the owners
The multi-table Poker tournament represents probably the most popular and definitely most televised style of poker play. The World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour, among many others come immediately to mind. The structure of these tournaments is quite simple. For a “buy in,” or set amount, players are entered into the tournament. Every player is then given the same number of chips and seated at as many tables as are necessary, and the elimination begins. When a player “busts out,” he leaves his seat, and remaining players are moved around to ensure equal numbers at each table. This takes hours and even days to complete in large multi-table tournaments. Only the top few finishers will earn money. Often, the tourney pays the top 10 finishers. For many players who have had great success in regular ring games, the multi-table tournament is a cruel effigy of failure. This can be directly traced to the fact that most players do not grasp the changes needed from their ring game style to a tournament style.
A typical blackjack tournament consists of several rounds of play, with tables of 6 or so players competing against each other in each round. The format is usually an elimination format, where only 1 or 2 players at each table will advance to the next round of play. Each round consists of a set number of hands. All players begin the round with a equal amount of chips. At the end of the round, the player or players with the highest bankroll will advance. Rounds are usually between 20 and 50 hands each. Each player must play each hand with a bet in the allowed range.
Rather than the dealer always dealing to the first chair (first base) first, a button is placed on the table in front of a player, who serves as first base on this hand. The button then moves consecutively around the table with each passing hand. This gives each player the opportunity to play as first base and third base in turn. More importantly, since players must bet in turn starting at the button, the disadvantage of betting and playing before the other players moves around the table.
Most tournaments consist of 3 to 5 rounds. A typical format might be 2 players out of the 6 at the table advance, 1 of 6 advances, then the finals. This format with 6 players at the final table would allow for 108 entries at 18 first round tables. Often in smaller tournaments, the first round will be split up into several qualifying rounds, so that if one does not advance, he can re-enter for another first round seat (often referred to as “re-buy” entry). Often, the prizes that a player will be eligible for, if he reaches the final round after having re-entered in first round, will be smaller than the prizes for players who qualified directly at the first round.
The prize pool for a tournament is usually, but not always, 100% of the entry fees paid by the players. This means that the casino has no advantage over the players in the tournament. Indeed, the skillful player can have a huge advantage over the other players if those players are less experienced in tournament strategy. Many casinos will guarantee the prize money even if the tournament does not fill up with entries. In these cases, the casino is literally paying the players to play the tournament. From the casino's viewpoint, it is a good marketing play, since they are drawing new players to the tables between the tournament rounds.
The prize money varies widely. Smaller tournaments might have an entry fee of $10, and pay $500 or $1000 for first place. Most tournaments pay at least 6 places. Larger tournaments might have an entry fee of $300-$500, with a correspondingly larger payout.
The Pioneer's $25,000 Blackjack Tournament is based on 125 entrants at $250 per entry. Re-buys are priced at $100. The tournament has three main rounds: 1 rst round (with potential re-buys playing in a second round), semi-finals and finals. The Tournament price breakdown is as follows:
1st Place$11,000.002nd Place$4,500.003rd Place$1,400.004th Place$900.005th Place$650.006th Place$550.007th–36th Place$200.00(in Semi-Finals ea.)
New or inexperienced players are often not confident enough to participate in such tournaments. Experienced players who have only an average performance in the game also prefer not to participate in such tournaments. All prefer to watch the tournament live or on television and guess who will win.
It would be advantageous to use the tournament's marketing and visibility advantage to help the casino owner get a higher return on investment.